Resist application method and device

ABSTRACT

The resist application method comprises the steps of: thermal processing for evaporating water from the surface of a wafer  10;  making the surface of the wafer  10  hydrophobic with a hydrophobic processing material; and applying a resist onto the wafer  10,  and the step of thermal processing to the step of making the surface of the wafer  10  hydrophobic are performed in a dehumidified atmosphere.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RERATED APPLICATION

This Application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 10/652,314filed on Sep. 2, 2003. This application is based upon and claimspriority of Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-264105, filed on Sep.10, 2002, the contents being incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a resist application method and devicefor applying a resist to a substrate after the surface of the substratehas been subjected to hydrophobic processing with hexamethyldisilazane.

Conventionally in fabricating semiconductor devices, when a resist isapplied to a substrate, such as a wafer or others, generally the surfaceof the substrate is made hydrophobic with hexamehtyldisilazane (HMDS) aspre-processing. HMDS is a good silylation agent, and easily silylateshydroxyl groups on the surface of the silicon substrate, etc. to makethe substrate surface hydrophobic.

The hydrophobic processing with HMDS enhances adhesion between theresist film and the substrate surface, whereby in the followingpatterning, the occurrence of unsatisfactory pattern transfer, etc. canbe suppressed.

The hydrophobic processing of a wafer surface with HMDS is made asfollows.

First, HMDS, which is liquid at the room temperature, is bubbled withnitrogen gas while being heated. The nitrogen gas containing the HMDSproduced by the bubbling is injected to a substrate on a hot plate whosetemperature is controlled within a range of 30-100° C. in a tightlyclosed processing chamber.

Then, usually the substrate is cooled at the room temperature, and acertain amount of resist is dropped onto the rotating substrate in anenvironment whose temperature and humidity are controlled, whereby theresist is applied to the substrate. The resist applied to the substrateis dried and solidified by heat processing, and a resist film is formed.The resist film thus formed on the substrate is subjected to an exposurestep to be patterned into a required shape, as of a wiring pattern orothers.

In such resist applying step, for better adhesion between the resist andthe substrate, various methods have been so far proposed.

For example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei 04-99310(1992) (pp. 2-3, FIGS. 1 and 2) discloses the method that prior to theHMDS processing, heated nitrogen gas is injected to a substrate tothereby remove water from the substrate surface.

Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei 05-315233 (1993)(Paragraphs 0021-0022, FIG. 2) and Japanese Published Patent ApplicationNo. Hei 06-302507 (1994) (Paragraphs 0014-0015, FIG. 1) disclose themethod that prior to the HMDS processing, water on the surface of asubstrate is removed by reduced pressure processing.

Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. Sho 62-35264 (1987)(pp. 2-3, FIGS. 1-3) discloses the method that the processing from theHMDS processing to the application of the resist is performed in anitrogen atmosphere.

Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei 10-256139 (1998)(Paragraphs 0026-0033, FIG. 1) discloses the method that dry air iscaused to flow in a coater cup where a resist is applied, for thepurpose of removing humidity around the coater cup and recycling theresist.

Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei 05-234866 (1993) disclosesthe method that a plasma processing unit and an HMDS processing unit aredisposed in one and the same chamber to thereby remove water onsubstrate surfaces by plasma processing.

The internal unit of the resist application device, where theabove-described resist application is performed is fed with anatmosphere in a clean room through a HEPA (High Efficiency ParticulateAir) filter. Recently, in applying a chemically amplified resist usedfor mass production, an atmosphere in a clean room is fed into theinternal unit through a chemical filter so as to remove basicsubstances, such as ammonia, etc., which inactivate the resist.

However, in the conventional resist application device, the humidity ofan atmosphere in a clean room, which is to be fed into the internalunit, has not been especially controlled.

Accordingly, HMDS used for the hydrophobic processing before the resistapplication reacts with water contained in the fed atmosphere of theclean room to be decomposed into siloxane-group substances, such astrimethylsilanol. Resultantly, it is often that the adhesion between theresist and substances is lowered.

For the prevention of such reaction of HMDS with water in theatmosphere, as described above in connection with the prior art, aresist application device which controls the water content of theatmosphere in the HMDS processing unit is also so far known. However,the water contents of the atmosphere before and after the HMDSprocessing have not been controlled. For example, in cooling a substrateafter the baking prior to the HMDS processing, in transferring thesubstrate or in cooling the substrate after the HMDS processing, thewater contents of the atmosphere have not been especially controlled.Accordingly, re-adsorption of water to the substrate surface, etc. takesplace. It cannot be said that the humidity control in the serialprocessing is sufficient.

For reducing the undesirable influence by the water before and after theHMDS processing, the method as exemplified by the prior art disclosed inJapanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. Sho 62-35264 (1987)(pp. 2-3, FIGS. 1-3), in which the serial processing from the HMDSprocessing to the resist application is performed in an atmosphere ofnitrogen gas, is known. However, the atmosphere in which the resistapplication is performed has also the water content decreased, whichwill make it difficult to form the resist film in a uniform filmthickness. Also in consideration of the amount of nitrogen gas requiredto completely replace the processing chamber and the time required forthe replacement, etc., it will be difficult to efficiently apply theresist from the viewpoint of cost and time.

The undesirable influence by the hydrolysis of the HMDS used in thehydrophobic processing on the substrate surface due to the water is notlimited to the reduced adhesion between the resist and the substrate aswill be described below.

Siloxane-group substances produced by the hydrolysis of the HMDS due tothe water cause reactions on the surfaces of especially amorphoussilicon, etc. Resultantly, after the resist has been patterned, foreignsubstances are often produced on the surfaces of amorphous silicon, etc.FIG. 4 is a picture of the foreign substance. The foreign substance wasobserved by a scanning electronic microscope.

Such foreign substances are sufficiently able to mask the etching, andare one factor for causing defects of the pattern as etched, which hasmuch affected yields of the products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a resist applicationmethod and device which can suppress the production of foreignsubstances on substrate surfaces.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided aresist application method comprising the steps of: thermal processingfor evaporating water from the surface of a substrate; making thesurface of the substrate hydrophobic with a hydrophobic processingmaterial; and applying a resist onto the substrate, the step of thermalprocessing to the step of making the substrate surface hydrophobic beingperformed in a dehumidified atmosphere.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provideda resist application method comprising the steps of: thermal processingfor evaporating water from the surface of a substrate; making thesurface of the substrate hydrophobic with a hydrophobic processingmaterial; and applying a resist onto the substrate, in the step ofthermal processing, a temperature of the substrate being above 150° C.including 150° C.

According to further another aspect of the present invention, there isprovided a resist application device comprising: a thermal processingunit for performing thermal processing to evaporate water from thesurface of a substrate in a dehumidified atmosphere; a hydrophobicprocessing unit for making the substrate surface hydrophobic with ahydrophobic processing material, keeping the dehumidified atmosphere;and a resist application unit for applying a resist onto the substrate.

As described above, the resist application method according to thepresent invention comprises the steps of: thermal processing forevaporating water from the surface of a substrate; making the surface ofthe substrate hydrophobic with a hydrophobic processing material; andapplying a resist onto the substrate, and the step of the thermalprocessing to the step of making the substrate surface hydrophobic areperformed in a dehumidified atmosphere, whereby the hydrolysis of thehydrophobic processing material to be used in the hydrophobic processingof the substrate surface can be suppressed, and the generation offoreign substances on the substrate surface can be suppressed. Thesubstrate surface is made hydrophobic with the hydrophobic processingmaterial while the substrate is being heated, whereby the adhesionbetween the substrate and the resist can be improved. Thus, thegeneration of foreign substances on the substrate surface can besuppressed, and the adhesion between the substrate and the resist isimproved, whereby semiconductor devices of high quality can befabricated with high yields.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an upper side view of the resist application device accordingto one embodiment of the present invention, which shows a structurethereof.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the steps of the resist application methodaccording to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3A are views of evaluation results.

FIG. 4 is a picture of a foreign substance.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The resist application method and device according to one embodiment ofthe present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.FIG. 1 is an upper side view of the resist application device accordingto the present embodiment, which shows a structure thereof. FIG. 2 is aflow chart of the resist application method according to the presentembodiment.

[1] The Resist Application Device

The resist application device according to the present embodiment willbe explained with reference to FIG. 1.

The resist application device according to the present embodimentincludes a housing unit 12 which houses a wafer 10 to be coated with aresist; a first thermal processing unit 14 where the wafer 10 issubjected to thermal processing before HMDS processing; a first coolingprocessing unit 16 where the wafer 10 which has been thermally processedby the first thermal processing unit 14 is cooled; an HMDS processingunit 18 where the surface of the wafer 10 is subjected to hydrophobicprocessing with HMDS; a second cooling processing unit 20 where thewafer 10 which has been subjected to the hydrophobic processing withHMDS is cooled; and a second thermal processing unit 22 where the waferwhich has been coated with the resist is thermally processed arrangedadjacent to each other in the stated order.

An arm moving region 26 where a carrying arm 24 for carrying a wafer 10to the respective processing units is provided on one sides of the firstthermal processing unit 14, the first cooling processing unit 16, theHMDS processing unit 18, the second cooling processing unit 20 and thesecond thermal processing unit 22. A resist application unit 28 where aresist is applied to the wafer which has been cooled after the HMDSprocessing is provided in the region opposed to the respectiveprocessing units across the arm moving region 26.

Partition walls 30 for isolating the respective processing units fromeach other are provided between the respective processing units andtheir adjacent one. The respective processing units are connectedrespectively to independent exhaust systems (not shown). Openings (notshown) for letting in and out the wafer 10 by the carrying arm 24 areprovided in the partition walls 30 of the respective processing unitsopposed to the arm moving region 26. The respective processing units areisolated chambers isolated from an atmosphere in a clean room where theresist application device is usually positioned. When the device isoperated, dehumidified air, i.e., clean dry air is fed into the firstthermal processing unit 14, the first cooling processing unit 16, theHMDS processing unit 18, the second cooling processing unit 20 and thearm moving region 26.

Wafers 10 to be coated with a resist are housed in the housing unit 12,mounted on a carrier 32. The carrying arm 24 is moved in the housingunit 12 and the arm moving region 26 to take the wafer 10 off thecarrier 32 and carry the wafer 10 to the respective processing units.

A hot plate 34 whose temperature can be controlled in the range of,e.g., 40-250° C. is provided in the first thermal processing unit 14.When the wafer 10 is thermally processed, the wafer 10 is mounted on thehot plate 34.

A cooling plate 36 inside which water whose temperature controlled by,e.g., a thermostat or others is circulated is disposed in the firstcooling processing unit 16. When the wafer 10 is subjected to thecooling processing, the wafer 10 is mounted on the cooling plate 36.

A hot plate 38 whose temperature can be controlled in the rage of, e.g.,40-250° C. is disposed in the HMDS processing unit 18. When the wafer 10is subjected to the HMDS processing, the wafer 10 is mounted on the hotplate 38. HMDS which has been bubbled with nitrogen gas and vaporized ina storage tank (not shown) disposed outside is carried on the nitrogengas as a carrier gas into the HMDS processing unit 18.

In the second cooling processing unit 20, a cooling plate 40 insidewhich water having the temperature controlled by, e.g., a thermostat orothers is circulated is disposed. When the wafer 10 is subjected to thecooling processing, the wafer 10 is mounted on the cooling plate 10.

In the second thermal processing unit 22, as in the first thermalprocessing unit 14, a hot plate 42 whose temperature can be controlledin the range of, e.g., 40-250° C. is provided. When the wafer 10 issubjected to the thermal processing, the wafer 10 is mounted on the hotplate 42.

In the resist application unit 28, there are disposed an application cup44 in which a resist is applied, and a wafer chuck 46 which is disposedin the application cup 44 and is rotated in horizontal plane, holdingthe wafer 10. A nozzle (not shown) for dropping a resist onto the wafer10 held by the wafer chuck 46 is disposed above the wafer chuck 46.

As described above, the resist application device according to thepresent embodiment is characterized mainly by the first thermalprocessing unit 14 which thermally processes a wafer 10 before the wafer10 is subjected to the HMDS processing. The wafer 10 is heated by thefirst thermally processing unit 14 before the wafer 10 is subjected tothe HMDS processing, whereby water on the surface of the wafer 10 isremoved, and the hydrolysis of the HMDS to be used in the hydrophobicprocessing of the surface can be suppressed.

The resist application device according to the present embodiment ischaracterized also by the hot plate 38 for heating the wafer 10 in theHMDS processing. The HMDS processing is made on the wafer which is beingheated by the hot plate 38, whereby the adhesion of the resist film tothe wafer 10 can be better.

The resist application device according to the present embodiment ischaracterized also in that while the device is in operation,dehumidified air, i.e., clean dry air is fed into the first thermalprocessing unit 14, the first cooling processing unit 16, the HMDSprocessing unit 18, the second cooling processing unit 20 and the armmoving region 26. The clean dry air is fed into the processing unitsinto which the wafer 10 is carried, and in the dehumidified atmosphere,the wafer 10 is carried and is subjected to the serial processing,whereby re-adsorption of the water to the surface of the wafer 10 can besuppressed. Thus, the hydrolytic reaction of the HMDS to be used in thesurface hydrophobic processing due to the water can be suppressed.

As described above, the resist application device according to thepresent embodiment suppresses the hydrolytic reaction of the HMDS to beused in the hydrophobic processing of the surface of the wafer 10,whereby the generation of foreign substances which are a cause forinconveniences, such as pattern defects, etc. on the surface of thewafer 10 with the resist developed. Furthermore, the adhesion betweenthe wafer 10 and the resist film can be better. Thus, semiconductordevices of high quality can be fabricated with high yields.

The clean dry air is not fed into the resist application unit 28, whichdoes not cause the inconvenience either that a resist film cannot beformed in a uniform thickness.

In the first thermal processing unit 14, the thermal processing isperformed only by the hot plate 34, which is simple heating meanswithout pressure reduction, which can make the device structure simplerin comparison with the device structure in which the heating isperformed with a hot plate in a reduced pressure chamber.

[2] The Resist Application Method

Next, the resist application method according to the present embodimentwill be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

First, the clean dry air is fed respectively into the first thermalprocessing unit 14, the first cooling processing unit 16, the HMDSprocessing unit 18, the second cooling processing unit 20 and the armmoving region 26. Concurrently therewith, the respective processingunits are exhausted by the exhaust systems associated respectivelytherewith to replace atmospheres in the respective processing units andthe arm moving region 26 with the clean dry air. The clean dry air has,e.g., a −60° C. dew point at the atmospheric pressure. A flow rate ofthe fed clean dry air is, e.g., 3 L/min.

Then, the processing started (Step S0).

Next, a wafer 10 is taken off the carrier 32 in the housing unit 12 bythe carrying arm 24, carried to the first thermal processing unit 14 andmounted on the hot plate 34 in the first thermal processing unit 14.

Then, the wafer 10 is heated by the hot plate 34 in the first thermalprocessing unit 14 set at, e.g., 225° C. for 60 seconds (Step S1). Theheating temperature and heating time of the wafer 10 are not limited to225° C. and 60 seconds and can be suitably set in accordance withvarious conditions, such as a wafer size, etc. so that water can beremoved from the surface of the wafer 10. For example, the heatingtemperature may be above 100° C. including 100° C. The heatingtemperature of the wafer 10 is set at above 150° C. including 150° C. tothereby evaporate water on the surface of the wafer 10 in a short periodof time without failure. With the heating temperature set at 200° C.including 200° C., water on the surface of the wafer 10 can beevaporated in a further shorter period of time without failure.

When the wafer 10 has been thermally processed, the wafer 10 is carriedby the carrying arm 24 from the first thermal processing unit 14 to thefirst cooling processing unit 16, and is mounted on the cooling plate 36in the first cooling processing unit 16. At this time, the arm movingregion 26 where the wafer is to be moved, and the first coolingprocessing unit 16 have been fed with the dehumidified clean dry air.Thus, after the thermal processing by the first thermal processing unit14, the re-adsorption of water to the surface of the wafer 10 can besuppressed.

Subsequently, the wafer 10 is cooled by the cooling plate 36 in thefirst cooling processing unit 16 (Step S2). The wafer 10 is cooled untilthe temperature of the wafer 10 becomes, e.g., 23° C., which is the roomtemperature.

After the cooling processing of the wafer 10 is completed, the wafer 10is carried by the carrying arm 24 from the first cooling processing unit16 to the HMDS processing unit 18 filled with dry nitrogen, and thewafer 10 is mounted on the hot plate 38 in the HMDS processing unit 18.At this time, the arm moving region 26 where the wafer 10 is moved isfed with the humidified clean dry air. Thus, after the thermalprocessing by the first thermal processing unit 14, the re-adsorption ofwater to the surface of the wafer 10 can be suppressed.

Next, the HMDS which has been vaporized by, e.g., bubbling is carried onnitrogen gas into the HMDS processing unit 18 to expose the surface ofthe wafer 10 to the vaporized HMDS. During this processing, the wafer 10is kept heated to, e.g., 110° C. by the hot plate 38 in the HMDSprocessing unit 18 (Step S3). The heating temperature here is notlimited to 110° C., and can be, e.g., above 100° C. including 100° C. aslong as the re-adsorption of water to the surface of the surface 10 canbe suppressed.

When the HMDS processing is over, the wafer 10 is carried by thecarrying arm 24 from the HMDS processing unit 18 to the second coolingprocessing unit 20, and the wafer 10 is mounted on the cooling plate 40in the second cooling processing unit 20. Subsequently, the wafer 10 iscooled by the cooling plate 40 in the second cooling processing unit 20(Step S4). The wafer 10 is cooled until the temperature of the wafer 10becomes, e.g., 23° C., which is the room temperature.

When the cooling processing of the wafer 10 is over, the wafer 10 iscarried by the carrying arm 24 from the second cooling processing unit20 to the resist application unit 28, the wafer 10 is held by the waferchuck 46 in the resist application unit 38.

Then, a prescribed amount of a resist is dropped onto the surface of thewafer 10 being rotated in horizontal plane by the wafer chuck 46. Theresist is thus applied to the surface of the wafer 10 by spin coating(Step S5). During this operation, the atmosphere in the resistapplication unit 18 is air having the humidity controlled to be, e.g.,45%. The temperature of the wafer 10 is controlled to be, e.g., 23° C.Thus, the atmosphere in the resist application unit 28 where the resistis applied has a suitable amount of water, which permits the resist filmto be formed in a uniform thickness.

When the resist application is completed, the wafer 10 is carried by thecarrying arm 24 from the resist application unit 28 to the secondthermal processing unit 22, and the wafer 120 is mounted on the hotplate 42 in the second thermal processing unit 22. Subsequently, thewafer 10 is heated to about 120° C. by the hot plate 44 in the secondthermal processing unit 22. The resist immediately after theapplication, which contains a suitable amount of organic solvent is thusdried and solidified (Step S6). The clean dry air which has been fedinto the first thermal processing unit 14, etc. does not have to be fedinto the second thermal processing unit 22. The atmosphere in the secondthermal processing unit 22 may be the same as that of, e.g., the cleanroom. The heating temperature is not limited to about 120° C. and can besuitably set in accordance with a kind, etc. of the applied resist.

Then, the wafer 10 is carried by the carrying arm 24 from the secondthermal processing unit 22 to the housing unit 12, and the wafer 10 ismounted on the carrier 32. Thus, the application of the resist by theresist application method according to the present embodiment iscompleted (Step S7).

The wafer 10 having the resist thus applied to is carried, mounted onthe carrier 32, to the next step of the exposure etc.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the clean dryair having the water content controlled to be small is fed into therespective processing units, the wafer 10 is subjected to the thermalprocessing before the HMDS processing, and the HMDS processing isperformed with the wafer 10 being heated, whereby the hydrolysis of theHMDS to be used in the hydrophobic processing of the surface can besuppressed. Thus, the generation of foreign substances on the surface ofthe wafer 10 can be suppressed, and also the adhesion between the wafer10 and the resist can be made better. Semiconductor devices of highquality can be fabricated with high yields.

Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei 05-315233 (1993) disclosesthe art that before the HMDS processing, a semiconductor substrate ismounted on a plate heated at 80° C. to be processed for 30 seconds at anabout 60 mmHg degrees of vacuum, whereby water is removed from thesemiconductor substrate surface. However, at the heating temperature of80° C., it is difficult to remove water from the semiconductor substratesurface without failure for a short period of time even at a reducedpressure.

In the present embodiment, water 10 is heated at the above-describedhigh temperature, which makes it possible to removed water from thesurface of the wafer 10. In the present embodiment, the pressurereduction is not necessary for the heat processing, which allows to usesimple heating means.

The art disclosed in Japanese Published Patent Application No. Hei05-315233 (1993) is for improving the adhesion of the resist film, andis quite different from the present invention, which is for suppressingthe occurrence of the foreign substances. Japanese Published PatentApplication No. Hei 05-315233 (1993) neither discloses nor suggests theheating temperature for preventing the occurrence of the foreignsubstances.

(Evaluation Result)

Wafers coated with a resist by the resist application method accordingto the present embodiment and the prior art resist application methodswere compared for evaluation in numbers of foreign substances detectedby a foreign substance detector.

FIGS. 3A and 3B show pictures of the wafers coated with the resist,which show the results of the detection of foreign substances by theforeign substance detector. FIG. 3A is the picture of the wafer coatedwith the resist by the resist application method according to thepresent embodiment. FIG. 3B is the picture of the wafer coated with theresist by the prior art method. In the wafer pictures, scattered pointsof gray to black indicate foreign substances. The numbers indicatedbelow the respective pictures indicate numbers of foreign substancesproduced due to the hydrolysis of the HMDS with respect to total numbersof the detected foreign substances.

In the case of the present embodiment, of the total number 16 of thedetected foreign substances, the number of the foreign substancesgenerated due to the hydrolysis was 0. In contrast to this, in the caseof the prior art method, of the total number 184 of the detected foreignsubstances, the number of the foreign substances generated due to thehydrolysis of the HMDS was 109.

Based on the results shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, it has been found thatthe resist application method according to the present embodiment candrastically decrease the number of foreign substances generated due tothe hydrolysis of the HMDS which are to be the cause for pattern defectsin the etching in comparison with the prior art method. It has been alsofound that the total number of the foreign substances detected on thewafer coated with the resist can be smaller.

[Modifications]

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodimentand can cover other various modifications.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the hydrophobicprocessing was performed by using HMDS, but the hydrophobic processingmaterial to be used in the making the surface hydrophobic is not limitedto HMDS.

In the present embodiment, the clean dry air has a −60° C. dew point inthe atmospheric pressure. However, the water content of the clean dryair is not limited to this, and the clean dry air can have a humidityof, e.g., below 20% including 20%.

In the present embodiment, the dry clean air is fed into the respectiveprocessing units, and the serial processing is performed in thedehumidified atmosphere. However, a gas to be fed into the respectiveprocessing unit is not limited to the clean dry air, and any gas can beused as long as the gas is dehumidified. In place of the clean dry air,an inert gas, e.g., nitrogen gas, rare gas or others may be fed.Otherwise, a mixed gas of them may be used. The use of the dry clean airis free from the risk of oxygen deficiency accidents which are presentin the use of nitrogen gas or others, and has an advantage that safetyequipments are not required.

In the above-described embodiment, a resist is applied onto wafers.However, the present invention is not limited to the application of aresist onto wafers and is applicable widely to the resist applicationonto various substrates, such as semiconductor substrates, glasssubstrates, etc.

In the above-described embodiment, the resist is applied onto wafers byspin coating. However, the method for applying a resist onto wafers isnot limited to the spin coating.

In the above-described embodiment, the serial process up to theapplication of the resist to the wafer is described. However, it ispossible that the resist application method according to the presentinvention is incorporated in the semiconductor device fabrication stepsto form resist films to be used in forming various patterns, as ofinsulation layers, wiring layers, etc. of semiconductor devices.

1. A resist application device comprising: a thermal processing unit forperforming thermal processing to evaporate water from the surface of asubstrate in a dehumidified atmosphere; a hydrophobic processing unitfor making the substrate surface hydrophobic with a hydrophobicprocessing material, keeping the dehumidified atmosphere; and a resistapplication unit for applying a resist onto the substrate.
 2. A resistapplication device according to claim 1, wherein the hydrophobicprocessing unit further comprises a heating means.